7/30/1944 USS Conklin reaches Pearl Harbor by way of the East Coast. .

7/31/44 -8/16/4. Pearl Harbor

8/16/44 Escort duty between Pearl Harbor and Eniwetok

10/3/44 Serve as plane Guard at Guam.

10/18/44 Eniwetok for submarine
guard.

10/24/44.Escort troopship of 1,300 men to Saipan. At Saipan act as
submarine guard . Multiple air raids experienced at Saipan.

11/6/44 - 11/8 Saipan to Ulithi.

11/11/44 Leave Ulithi and with the USS McCoy Reynolds DE 440; escort the
troopships SS Howell Lykes and SS Anson Burlingame to San Pedro Bay,
Leyte, carrying 4,800 troops ( the first replacements for the ground battle of
the Philippines.)

11/14/44
Arrive Leyte. Multiple air raids are experienced.

11/15/44. Leave Leyte.
In convoy to New Guinea. McCoy Reynolds and Conklin
diverted to Palau.

11/18/44 Arrive Palau.

11/19/44 McCoy Reynolds
and Conklin receive emergency notice 0915 (9:15 AM)
of Japanese submarine sighting nearby, at western entrance of Kossol passage
of Palau. Sub found and sunk with hedgehogs by late afternoon. Later
identified at the Japanese I -37, one of a group 3 Kaiten -bearing attack submarines, sent from Japan. ( Force
"Kikusui".) Kaiten were "midget suicide
subs", basically the torpedo equivalent of a kamikaze plane. Force
Kikusui
was the first -ever Kaiten attack group . The Conklin and McCoy Reynolds stopped the I-37 just 12 hours before it was to attack the American forces
grouped at Ulithi. The remaining 2 subs did so, resulting in the explosion
of the American USS Misissenewa AO 59 and horrendous loss of life.
The Conklin then did days of patrol duty at Ulithi, Palau, Eniwetok and
Guam.

1945

1/1/45. Japan sent the second group of Katin -bearing
submarines, Force Kongo, to attack the American forces. .

1/12/45.Force Kongo attacks at Ulithi while the USS CONKLIN and hundreds of
American ships are grouped there as part of the build up for the invasion of
Japan. Japanese Kaiten damage the American USS Mazama, killing one sailor
and seriously injuring eight. Kaiten also explode into t he American Infantry
Landing Craft LCI -600.

1/23/45.
USS Conklin heads a team including destroyer escorts Corbesier
DE-438 and Raby DE-698 in the sinking of another Japanese submarine
1-48, off Yap Island in the Caroline Islands. (This sub was part of the second Kaiten Special Attack
Groups, "Force Kongo", which included the I-53 and 2 other Jap subs. Officers of Kongo included
LTJG Kazuhisa Toyozumo, ENS Taro Taukamoto, PO 2nd Katsumo (I-48). The LCDR of the
I-48 was Matsunobu Toyama. Kaiten, which means "Turning of the Heavens" were known as
"Kamikaze subs", "suicide subs" or "midget subs." They were essentially manned torpedoes.)

2/14/45. USS
Conklin sails from Ulithi on escort duty to the Palaus and Mamus.

2/27/45. USS
Conklin arrives in Palua and Manus, joins the screen for the logistics
group supporting mighty carrier TF-58.

3/1/45.Participates in Okinawa operation.

3/2/45.
Recapture of Corregidor, Philippines.

5/8/45.
Victory in Europe.

3/20/45 to 6/5/45.
USS Conklin is almost constantly at sea with the logistics group for the
Okinawa operation. Duties include transferring passengers, mail and freight,
serving as plane guard and escorting ships of the group to replenishment at
Guam and Ulithi.

6/45. In early
June Admiral Halsey had taken over the fleet and was as customary with this
change of command the Fifth Fleet became the Third Fleet.

6/5/45.
USS Conklin is heavily damaged in a typhoon off
Okinawa. A monstrous wave knocked the ship
completely onto her side, at which point the ship lost all
power and water. Fuel oil flooded into the ship.
Three of her crew were killed immediately. Lt. Peter
N. Meros and Rudolph Slavich S1c were swept over board,
and Anthony Monti S1c was killed inside the ship by a
collapsing hatch.

When
Butler-class Destroyer Escorts rolled the critical angle
of 72 degrees, the weight of the top-heavy masts
inexorably continued the roll and dragged the ship to the
bottom of the sea. The inclinometer of the Conklin
measured a roll of 78 degrees.

Then, by
what figuratively and perhaps literally can be termed the
Hand of God, another freak wave hit the Conklin and rolled
her back up so that the rest of her men survived with the
superb seamanship and desperate efforts of their crew.